Aggressive Competition? You’re Gonna Need A Bigger Boat

In New England, nothing shouts “Summer!” more than the first report that sharks have been spotted off Cape Cod beaches. Great White sharks. Six more were spotted this week cruising close to the shore in Chatham, MA.

When the island of Martha’s Vineyard was used as the setting for the 1975 movie Jaws, the movie rolled out a tide of beach fears that have never quite receded. Scenes from Jaws have caused adults and children to avoid swimming in the ocean, or panic and run from the water when seeing a harmless sunfish off the beach, or learn the pounding technique for scaring a shark away.

Are your competitors sharks? When new competitors are 100 yards off your company shore, or seemingly right next to your plant (boat) do you immediately think you ‘…need a bigger boat?’

Here’s a familiar scene from Jaws which illustrates the “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” reaction.

My experience has shown that management reacts in one of three ways when confronted with intense, encroaching competition:

Panic. This would include: screaming, obsessing, flailing, and hand wringing, and lashing out at the management team and customers. These are the companies that immediately think they ’Need a Bigger Boat’ to defend against the new foes.

Fall Asleep. This is the avoidance/hiding the head in the sand approach. Sharks, HUGE Sharks? Ho, hum, snore. Hand me another ‘Gansett from the cooler.

Jump In and swim with the sharks. This is the reaction from confident, informed management teams. They believe strong competition is helpful and healthy for the corporate ecosystem.

When a senior team either panics or falls asleep, the company becomes what I call Stuck in Traffic. And like being stuck in beach traffic on a hot summer day, this is not most people’s idea of fun.

A Panic Example

ProcessCo had a lock on their regional market for a long time. They were the dominant supplier of a complicated job shop process technique and they knew it. A large foreign company that offered a competitive process was looking to expand in the US. They picked a number of regions to locate new plants; one location was smack in the middle of ProcessCo’s regional backyard. ProcessCo panicked by:

slashing prices

browbeating longstanding customers

setting unrealistic delivery schedules they could not meet

messing around with chemical formulations to cut manufacturing costs

Quality suffered, business declined, and rework costs went through the roof. Napoleon once stated: “Never interrupt your enemy while he is making a mistake.”

How To Avoid Becoming Stuck in Traffic

Some obvious reminders/recommendations on how to stand up to the competitive onslaught:

Don’t obsess, take a breath

Ask yourself: Have you been taking your customers for granted? Have their needs changed? Are you Stuck in a Rut?

Panic can be accentuated when you don’t have a clear understanding of your value proposition or your business model is muddled. Stack your company up against this new competitor by looking at: a) your value proposition vs. theirs; b) document specific differences in product/service offerings: c) document differences in the all the facets of the business model ‘wrapping’ (i.e. customer service, customer processes, go to market tactics, financial strength, quality, etc.)

Be objective – if the competitors’ product or service offerings are in fact superior to yours, what are your team’s action plans to restore equilibrium or leapfrog you ahead?

Ultimately ProcessCo calmed down and took action. Management realized that even though many of their customers were loyal, they expected fair, consistent treatment. The actions they took were not hard; they fixed:

the formulations and the quality problems

the delivery and scheduling mixups

the pricing

the overall levels of customer service

In the end, ProcessCo realized swimming with the sharks made them a better company.

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Jim McHugh

Jim McHugh has extensive experience working with emerging growth and middle market companies as an executive coach, strategic/performance improvement consultant and director. CEOs, family owners, investors and Directors enlist Jim to be their ‘fresh pair of eyes’ and confidant. [Read More …]